White: Dominant Velasquez win over dos Santos could signal end to rivalry

LAS VEGAS – The rubber match between UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and former champ Junior dos Santos might wind up being the final time the two meet.

Velasquez (12-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) and dos Santos (16-2 MMA, 10-1 UFC) will meet Oct. 19 at UFC 166 in Houston, UFC President Dana White on Monday confirmed to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). And White said a decisive Velasquez win could effectively signal the end of rivalry.

“I think if Cain wins the fight as impressively as he did the last one, it would be tough to do that fight again,” White told MMAjunkie.com. “That fight happened just to f— up our FOX (debut).”

But White did say a dos Santos win would open the door for the rivalry to head to a fourth meeting.

The two heavyweights first met at UFC on FOX 1 in November 2011. It was Velasquez’s first defense of the heavyweight title after wresting it from Brock Lesnar more than a year prior.

In that fight, dos Santos won in just 64 seconds, picking up a “Knockout of the Night” bonus – and the coveted heavyweight title. As White alluded to, the bout was the lone fight on a special one-hour live

He went on to defend the belt six months later when he stopped Frank Mir in the second round at UFC 146. The same night, Velasquez picked up a quick first-round bloody stoppage of Antonio Silva – and punched his ticket to a rematch to try to recapture the title.

And recapture it he did, dominating the Brazilian for 25 minutes when the two fought in the UFC 155 main event this past December.

In May, Velasquez stopped Silva again in the first round to defend the title just after dos Santos knocked out Mark Hunt with a head kick in the third round. And naturally, the two picking up wins laid the groundwork for the third meeting.

White said other heavyweights in the division might have to get used to seeing a lot of Velasquez and dos Santos at the top, though. The two, naturally, are ranked No. 1 and 2 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA heavyweight rankings. In the pound-for-pound poll, Velasquez is No. 8, while dos Santos is 11.

“If you look at our heavyweight division right now, you’ve got dos Santos, and you’ve got Velasquez,” White said. “They are, without a doubt, the two best heavyweights in the world – and it’s tough to get past either one of them if you’re one of these guys who’s (ranked No.) 3 through 10.”

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?